Mt. Province Capital Temporarily Shuts Its Doors From LSIs

July 7, 2020 JUST IN

BAGUIO CITY (July 7, 2020) – Bontoc, Mountain Province’s capital town, has temporarily shut down its doors from Locally Stranded Individuals (LSIs) from the National Capital Region (NCR) and other locations.
Bontoc Mayor Franklin Odsey who chairs the Municipal Inter-Agency Tadk Force (MIATF) issued Memorandum Order 32 – 2020 imposing a temporary halt in welcoming LSIs to Barangay Bayyo until July 20, 2020.
The moratorium is issued as the whole of Mountain Province in in a Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ) status.
In the memorandum order, Odsey stated that the number of LSIs going home in Barangay Bayyo outnumbers the limited personnel of the municipal health office and Barangay Health Workers (BHWs) in charge of health monitoring.
The mayor also mentioned the limited quarantine facilities identified by the said barangay.
LSIs especially those coming from the NCR which have places with high number of cases of Covid-19 infections are required to undergo the mandatory 14-day quarantine period.
Barangay Bayyo is just a kilometers away from Banaue, Ifugao.
While the Banaue local government unit stood its ground on Monday and did not allow the team of Director Joyce Bernal together with actor Piolo Pascual to go to Barangay Batad.   
The team asked for permission from Banaue LGU to shoot sceneries and sequences on the rice terraces as background to the State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Despite the team having in their possession an official document from RTVM Malacañang they were suppose to film footages in the Cordilleras for the upcoming SONA and health clearance papers, the municipality of Banaue holds on to its local protocols.
The municipality has standing Executive Order from its Mayor John Raymund Wesley A. Dulawan prohibiting travels to and from Banaue from July 3 to July 10, 2020.
The E.O. was issued by Wesley following the new cases of infection in nearby municipalities of Ifugao. The order is to prevent the virus from entering Banaue and also gibe ample time for the infected municipalities to do necesarry contact tracing in containing the infection.
Earlier, the same team of Bernal was denied to do their shooting in Sagada, Mountain Province.   Members of the Sagada Covid-19 task force and government officials explained to the team their local protocols to safeguard their people.

Bernal and her companions were allowed to stay overnight in one of the accommodations in Sagada on humanitarian grounds.
Artemio A. Dumlao